Data Structures to Represent Public Transport Systems for Small Towns

Commuter bus systems plays a crucial role in the working of a city, especially for the non-metropolitan towns, where it is the primary mode of transport. For efficient planning, management and utilization of a citys transport system, a well-organized and structured database is necessary. While different cities follow different conventions to store and manage data, it is not clear if this representation allows for data analysis and optimization. This study outlines one possible methodology to formalize this data into structures which can be used for query and analysis purposes. The methodology is made simple enough to be implemented by the novice programmer. One unique feature is the unification of the tabular data of the schedules with geospatial data of routes, which produces a rich and powerful database. It is followed by some applications and algorithms briefly describing the arenas where this data can be utilized by researchers, depot managers, and everyday passengers.